Black Gram Vadai - Ulunthu Vadai
Ulunthu Vadai
This is a common spicy snack made in almost every home. These cannot be kept for more than one day or two.
Ingredients:
Black gram dhal 1 cup
Onion 1 medium
Green chillies 3
Fennel seeds ½ teaspoons
Curry leaves 8
Salt to taste
Oil for frying
Method:
Soak black gram dhal in water for three to four hours, wash and remove the husk if present.
It is much easier to use the clean or husked gram.
Drain and grind to a paste. Do not add water.
Leave about one table spoon full of gram without grinding - this gives a different taste when bitten.
Dice the onion, cut green chillies to small pieces.
Fry fennel seeds, the onions, curry leaves and chillies gently in little oil before adding to the paste.
Add salt and mix well.
In some homes onions and green chillies are not fried, they just add them fresh.
Heat oil in a pan and when ready place a ball of dough on to a tin foil paper moistened with water, and flatten and make a round hole in the middle to a shape of a doughnut.
Gently lift it off the foil and drop it into the hot oil and fry until golden, turning to cook on both sides evenly.
Add 2 tablespoons of soaked cooked rice ground to a paste, to the vadai mixture before frying and this gives a softer vadai.
Serve with: Ginger sambal or chutney
Variation:
1) Curd vadai / Thayir Vadai
Beat 4 cups of curd or yoghurt and add about ½ teaspoon of chilli powder, salt and mix.
When vadais have been made, squeeze each with kitchen tissue to remove excess water and oil.
Place these vadais in a bowl and pour the yoghurt over until the vadais are fully covered and set aside for about half hour.
In a little oil fry some mustard seed s until they pop and add ¼ teaspoon asafoetida and chopped curry leaves and add this mixture to the curd vadais before serving.
2) Spinach Vadai / Keerai Vadai
Ingredients:
In addition to above for Black gram vadai,
Spinach leaves - tender 1 cup OR Murungai Leaves
Ginger 1 inch piece
Method:
Chop the spinach or Murungai leaves finely and chop ginger finely and add these to the fried onion and green chillies and fry further the leaves are cooked. Add this to the ground gram paste and mix well
As before, make doughnut shaped dough and fry in oil until it turns golden.
